The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-11-11
FROM THE PACIFIC COAST
Impartial View of Commercial, Social
and Moral Conditions in California.
The Great Real Estate CraZe-Sensationa
Character of San FranciscO-Prediction
as to Its Future Greatness.
of the india napolis Journal.

SAN Francisco Nov. 1.-The southern Cali
fornia of the past has departed; the Southern
California of the future is not yet at hand. The
traveller of former days who remembers the lazy
stiffness of the summer air. the quiet walks at
evening through fragrant flower gardens, the
lonely gallop along the natural roads, now finds
upon second visit different state of affairs.
Everywhere he finds roar and rush. confusion
and dust; the rattle Of the carpenters hammers
sounds in his ears continually; the streets are
long avenues of dust, thrown up by the constant
procession of passing teams; and at every point
his eve is greeted with the faring advertise
ments of the real estate In Los Angeles
there are several thousand agents, and almost
miles of Offices. Dry goods stores. groceries,
barber shops, book stores and fruit stands have
all divided their space and given half their room
to the real estate man. On most of the street
corners you find desks standing by the curb
stone, where real estate offices have been
opened for want of indoor accommodations. The
newspapers are vast broadsides of 'boom" liter
allure. No conversation is possible anywhere
upon any subject other than real estate. The
preacher breaches it, and the theaters would be
forsaken without the real estate gags of the
actors. Vast excursion trains roll into the de-
pots daily, bringing uncounted masses of people.
Everywhere, even in the smallest towns are to
be found either suburban railroads, cable cars.
horse cars, electric motors steam dummies,
all packed with struggling humanity. Every
day enterprises of the most colossal char
acter are announced, and it can almost be said
that they sooner announced than
menced no sooner commenced than completed.
Millions of money lie in the bank vaults of Los
Angeles to back these schemes Everything is
counted indeed by fractions of a million dollars.
estate transfers below five thousand dollars are
not published. The new enterprises which are
being turned out such magnificent scales re-
late almost entirely either to the construction of
hotels of railroads, Street-car lines, steamer
docks or irrigating canals for distributing water
to desert lands. There is yet manufacture
ing and practically commerce, and effort
is noticeable for development in these direc-
tons. But in the matter of hotels and trans
portation, the advance passes belief. In and
around Los Angeles there will be completed no.
tells at the rate of one a week for the next six
months, each of which structures have cost from
fifty thousand to five hundred thousand dollars.
Prices of Los Angeles real estate approximate
those of Chicago. while those of Pasadena, a
residence town of seven thousand people, eight
miles from Los Angeles. materially higher
for all classes of property than those of Indian
apolis. The enormous expansion of prices has
also extended to fruit lands. The choicest
improved orange land, with water, can not be
had for less than five hundred dollars acre,
which is from three to five times the price of
L
timony of fruit growers themselves, no kind of
per cent. of income can be earned by fruitraiS
ing with such prices for land. The result is,
the choicest orange groves are being cut up into
town lots wherever the location will permit oft.
After this frenzy of speculation has subsidized,
and after the inevitable collapse, there will
doubtless emerge from the chaos of the
most charming countries in the world Vast
populations viii settle here. When it is
membered that the shores of the Mediterranean
were densely populated, were lined with
cities like Rome, Carthage, Athens and Alex
andria, while Europe was yet an unbroken sol
itude-when consider how quickly the gor-
sprang into their Undiscovered splendor under
those sunny Skies while the cherries depths of
the German forests and the inhospitable shores
of England were still peopled with savages, We
can understand better the swift possibilities of
California. The fertility of her soil must rather
be compared to that of the valley of the Nile, or
of the Ganges. than to any part of the United
States. A country in which ten acres will sup
port family will in the end contain a vast pop
ulation. The territory of California is but little
less in extent than that of France, and though
the arabic land is considerably less, the differ
ence in extent is doubtless more than made
good whether in the northern or southern part
of the State by the greater productivity OF the
soil.
In few years there will be no grain grown in
California. The land will be devoted to the far
more profitable fruit-culture- San Francisco Is
already one of the greatest wine and fruit
markets in the world, and this is hardly the be-
ginning have heard that the entire shipment
of fruit and wine last year from southern Cali
fornia points was only 4 per cent of the total
output of the State, nearly all OF which was
handled here
Besides this there is to be mentioned the fab
ulous mineral resources of the State IN the way
of gold and silver, which France does not possess
So that in the natural resources OF the country
alone California is not merely the prototype, but
the peer of France.
For this superb region great capital, a metrop-
oils so to speak is inevitable by all the laws of
social growth. France has her Paris, England
her London, Italy her Rome, and California her
San Francisco. To this city all of the country
west of the Rocky mountains and extending
along the coast from Puget sound to lower
California is and will always be, largely tribu-
tary. Other large and populous places will spring
up to supply local necessities, but all these will
only be feeders of the great central metropolis.
Another element in the future of San Franciso is
to be considered. The shores of the Pacific
ocean are occupied by more than one third of
the human race. There is Japan, and China and
Australia. and New Zealand, which is alone as
large and fertile as England, to say nothing or
the western coast of Central and South America.
The trade of California with these countries viii
itself be considerable, but far greater Will be the
traffic of the rest of the United States which
must be carried on with these faroff countries
through San Francisco. 1t will be seen at a
glance that in all the region OF the PACING ocean
San Francisco has not even a single rival IL is
the only modern city, representing the com
merce, the manufactures, the ideas OF
European and American civilization upon
the shores of the Pacific ocean. 1t IS
many days nearer to Japan and CHINA and
Australia than London is AS for the western
coast of South America 1t IS rlght at the very
doors of San Francisco, besides which 1t must
be remembered that San Francisco was or1g1-
nalIy Spanish city; that fifteen thousand of its
present population are of Spanish descent and
language and that this place is the nearest as
well as the favorite resort of traders and travel
ers from South America.
While ner material resources and geographical
situation give promise that San Francisco VIII
become the third city of the Union, inferior
only to New York and Chicago. the question
arises whether her moral and social progress
To Eeap
vance To an outsider the present state of
California society may be described as sensa-
tional. Every day seems to produce new sort
most immoral character. The papers sup
piled with headline type of the largest size, but
still seem unable to do the subject justice. The
bulletin boards are always surrounded by eager |
crowds One day it is divorce suit in one of |
the 1niinnaire families: the next daY it is the |